Fugitive
by MariaShadow
Summary: G1 It's training day at the Ark again, and a few 'bots get the short end of the stick


Fugitive 

_BANG _

Metal feet pounded the dusty brown earth as the last echoes of the shot bounced through the hills, their owners crashing through the dry fingers of dead sagebrush and whispery prairie grass in their haste to escape.

"If we get caught, I'm blaming it all on you." Sunstreaker panted.  
"Aww, you do love me." Sideswipe teased, earning himself a smack across the back of his head. "But seriously, I think we might need to split up." The red twin said; jerking his thumb back the meter wide swath of trampled grass behind them. "Even Sludge could follow this trail."  
"You sure that's such a good idea?"  
"I've got a 50 cred bet riding on this, it had better."  
"Alright. I'll take the hills, you go for the river." Sunstreaker clapped one hand on Sideswipe's glossy back. "Take care."  
"Always." Sideswipe grinned mischievously then bounded away. Sunstreaker spared a moment to watch his brother's retreating form then turned to run up the rock-encrusted foothills to the east.

0o0o0

"Anythin'?" Jazz queried, peering over Hound's broad shoulder.  
"It looks like they split up." Hound replied, his thick fingers brushing the crumpled grass. He looked up from his kneeling position and scanned the grassy valley before them. "One of them headed that way, to the river, and the other turned east." He said, pointing to two barely discernible tracks leading away.  
"Jazz, Ironhide, Bluestreak, you take the river. Hound and I will cover the hills." Ratchet ordered.

0o0o0

A black helm, barely visible against the dark basalt, peered over a boulder. "Slaggit!" Sideswipe swore, then activated his comm. "Sunny, they just sic'd Hound on ya."  
Sunstreaker let out a concoction of slurs that would have blistered paint. _"I'll try shake them. You keep the others busy."  
_"Watch yourself, we've got three hours to kill."  
"_Whatever."_

Sideswipe grinned as he deactivated his radio and turned to lower himself into the river, being sure to leave a scuffmark on the rocks that formed the riverbank. He'd found this spot the last time they were here. He had tried to hide his trail by walking through the river, only to find that it was a good deal deeper than what it had appeared to be. Sideswipe closed his vents to the silty water and submerged.

0o0o0

"Y' think we'll get 'em this time?" Ironhide drawled.  
"Should do." Jazz replied as he slowly walked forward, trusting the other two to watch his hide while he tracked the fugitive. "They don't have Hound on their side this time."  
"That's true." The older mech grinned.

They followed Sideswipe's trail to the riverbank, the disturbed soil and torn up plant life leaving a clear indicator of the mech's passage. Which was why the hunting Autobots were so suspicious.

"Looks like he turned and headed upstream here." Bluestreak said, pointing. "Maybe he's going to try losing us in the ravines."  
"Maybe, but I got some paint scrapes here." Jazz replied, kneeling on a broad rock. A trace of red paint clung to the edge. "Ya think he crossed th' river?" Ironhide queried, looking around in case Sideswipe was trying to climb the sheer wall of the opposite riverbank again.  
"Dunno." Jazz leaned in for a closer look at the rock.

Ironhide heard a startled yelp and a splash. When he looked back at Jazz, all he could see was a damp mark where water had splashed up on the stone.

"Jazz!" Ironhide fell to his knees and plunged one arm into the river, his hand locking around a shoulder before hauling the coughing and spluttering Porsche out onto the riverbank. Jazz knelt for a moment, hacking as he tried to clear the worst of the silt and water from his vents. "Eugh, unpleasant." He wheezed. "Never go swimmin' w' ya vents open."  
"What happened?" Ironhide demanded.  
"Sideswipe did, popped up an' pulled me in. Then he swam off that way." Jazz gestured downstream.  
"C'mon, we can catch 'im at th' rapids!" Ironhide said, getting to his feet and sprinting down the riverbank, the other two quickly following. "He ain't getting' away this time!"

0o0o0

At this particular moment in time, Sunstreaker hated his life. His shin guards were scratched, there was grass stuck in his ankle joints, and he had Hound on his tail. "_Why oh why did it have to be _Hound_?"_ The yellow warrior thought sourly to himself. _"He's the only other mech aside from Jazz who knows a thing about tracking. He doesn't _need_ to be out here."_

Today was Tuesday, which (barring a Decepticon attack) was training day. And this time it was a little scenario entitled 'Fugitive'. Out of a pool of Autobots, four or five were selected at random -a.k.a by drawing straws- and were designated the fugitives. The rest of the group was divided into teams and designated an Autobot to hunt down. The fugitives had three minutes to get away before their pursuers were sent out with the goal of catching their target and keeping him until the three hour time limit was up.

The fugitive was allowed almost any method of escape, as long as they stayed within a 150 mile radius of the base, and both sides were expressly forbidden any kind of action that would result in physical harm. And although poaching another team's fugitive wasn't ethical, it wasn't exactly frowned on either, so just to be safe the fugitives steered clear of anyone who wasn't one of their own.

With a Herculean effort, Sunstreaker leapt up and grabbed a rocky overhang, hoisted himself up and struck out north across the narrow plateau, hoping that his little manoeuvre would confound the Jeep long enough for him to get some distance between himself and the green mech.

Sunstreaker jumped over a gully and carefully skirted a small stream. Footprints in damp sand had been his downfall the last time he was a fugitive. He kept his senses on high alert, audios tuned to the highest sensitivity and optics scanning the area constantly.

The crunch of gravel underfoot alerted the Lamborghini to another mech's approach. He slowed and ducked behind a thick bush. Venting hard, a rather harried looking Prowl scrambled up the slope and stood there for a moment, hands on his knees as he tried to cool down his systems sufficiently to allow himself to move again.

Smirking, Sunstreaker emerged from behind his bush. "Sucks to be us, eh?" He asked of his fellow fugitive.  
"Rather." Prowl replied wryly, straightening up as he looked around. "Have you seen the Dinobots?"  
"Nope. But I thought I spotted the Arials over near the gravel pits."

Prowl offered a curt nod of thanks and set off again, being careful to avoid the gravel pits while keeping an optic out for his quintet of assigned pursuers.

0o0o0

Skyfire didn't bother with hiding his trail. As soon as he was outside, the jet simply took off and shot skyward, concealing himself in a cloud. His plan was to wait until the Aerialbots had started searching a towering thunderhead nearby, then drop to the ground. There was a little cave he had discovered not too far away, and hopefully it would conceal him long enough to find another hiding place.

Just as he had hoped, the quintet of fliers came out of the Ark and took to the skies. Only this time, they split up into two groups, two headed for the thunderhead, while the other three flew straight towards the scientist. Skyfire groaned. This was not what he had anticipated.

0o0o0

Prowl pressed himself against the rock wall, trying to get as flat as possible. Swoop circled overhead, his distinctive shadow rippling over the jagged stones that littered the canyon floor. For the umpteenth time, the black and white berated himself for his stunning lapse in logic for choosing to try and make his escape into the ravines that laced the desert to the west of the Ark. During the Dinobot's self-imposed exile they had made these canyons their home and no doubt knew them inside out. Prowl let out a tightly controlled sigh and slowly edged along the sandstone wall.

0o0o0

Sideswipe pulled himself along the river bottom, strong fingers digging deep into the thick clay while his toes scraped for purchase in the silt. He crab-walked across the river bed, trying to see through the murky water. Finally, he spotted the tributary he had been searching for and quickly swam up it.

After swimming about twenty meters upstream, the Lamborghini surfaced in a small pool, moving slowly to avoid creating too many splashes. Satisfied that nobody was around, Sideswipe began wading towards the nearest bank.

_Sshhhhhhcrrriiiikkkk_

"What the slag!" Sideswipe yelped as the water around him froze solid, trapping his lower body in ice. He tugged frantically, but it was no use. The red Lamborghini was well and truly stuck.  
"Now, ain't this a curious sight?" Ironhide drawled as he came into view, Jazz and Bluestreak close behind. "Snap-frozen hell-raiser."  
"More like Lambo on ice." Jazz grinned as he sat down on a log.

Sideswipe groaned. This was going to be a very long two and a half hours.

0o0o0

Skyfire watched the three approaching Aerialbots warily. _"Now is as good a time as any I guess."_ He thought sourly to himself. He waited until they were hit by a knot of turbulence then ducked out of his cloud, aiming west.

"There he is!"  
"Get him!"  
"Banzai!"

That last cry had come from Skydive, who had recently been studying the Kamikaze pilots of World War Two, just before the Aerialbot twisted into robot mode and latched himself onto the startled jet's left wing. Apparently he wanted to give their tactics a go too. Skyfire wrenched himself into a barrel roll and attempted to shake off the smaller flier. By now Silverbolt had closed in on an intercept trajectory, and in a surprisingly graceful move, flipped end over end in a jet-style somersault, transformed, and grabbed Skyfire's other wing.

Aerodynamics now greatly reduced, Skyfire fought for all his worth but couldn't stop more of the team from latching onto him.

"Better give up, cause there's no way we are." Slingshot grinned.  
"Not a chance." Skyfire shot back. He cut his jets and angled his nose towards the ground, transforming seconds before he hit and scattering Aerialbots everywhere, opting to run for cover in the nearby forest.

His plan would have worked if Fireflight had been among the 'bots hanging onto him.

0o0o0o0

Sunstreaker silently vowed to slowly vivisect whoever it was who had thought of 'Fugitive' with a dull knife.

"_Scratch that,"_ he corrected himself, _"I'll use a rock."_ No matter what he did he just couldn't shake Hound for more than a few minutes, and thanks to the local environment he looked more like a scrap-pile reject than his usual deadly elegant self.

Muttering a few curses, he slid down a scree slope and jumped a narrow ravine. So far, he knew that Sideswipe was down, Prowl was still leading the Dinobots on a merry chase through the canyons, and Skyfire was currently at the bottom of an Aerialbot pile up.

"_Just one more hour, slaggit. Is that too much to ask?"_ Sunstreaker thought as he carefully parted some bushes and stepped between them. He knew there was an old lava tube nearby that led into the network of galleries and caves under the Ark. If he could get in there, he could get into the Ark and find a secure place to wait out the remaining 55 minutes.

0o0o0

Optimus watched the scene from the relative safety of the control room. Knowing his unit there was no telling what someone would pull during a training mission. He smiled slightly behind his battle mask as he recalled what had happened last month during the prisoner transport/ambush scenario. Prowl had barely escaped with his hide intact after that one.

The Prime turned his attention back to the screens displaying video feeds from the sky spies dispatched to monitor the exercise. The first showed Sideswipe still frozen up to his elbows in the pool, Jazz and Ironhide poking a little fun at his expense. Skyfire was on the second, staked to the ground in a very Lilliput-esk fashion with the added indignity of an Aerialbot perched on each wing to make sure the gentle giant of a jet didn't try to escape before the three hours were up. Prime knew he'd be ribbed for that one for weeks to come. The Dinobots were visible on the next screen, on their way back to the Ark with Prowl bound hand and foot and slung over Sludge's back like a sack of grain. Apparently he had taken a wrong turn and got backed into a box canyon.

However, the final screen was vacant of both fugitive and hunters. "That's odd." Prime frowned, directing the sky spy to zoom out and increase its search radius. "Where'd Sunstreaker go?"

He got his answer a moment later when the control room doors slid open and a rather bedraggled Sunstreaker ran in, sprinting across the room and out the other door. Hound followed moments later, trailed by a wheezing Ratchet.

Optimus shook his head and laughed. One was never sure ofwhat to expect when it came to the occupants of the Ark.

Fin


End file.
